February 22, 2023 Minutes

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Faculty Senate Meeting (Leon Johnson 346)

02.22.2023

3:15 pm – 4:30 pm

I.            Call to Order

a.       Meeting called to order at 3:15pm.

II.            Approval of FS Minutes from February 8, 2023

a.       Tomas Gedeon moves to approved. Chris Posbergh seconds. None opposed. Approved. 

III.            FYI items

a.       If you haven’t picked up your Faculty Senate water bottle from the Provost’s office, please do. There are enough for Alternates as well. Montana Hall 212. 

b.       Save the Date: 100th Day of Student Recognition May 5, 2023

c.       MSU Leadership Institute: A Conversation With Dmitry Muratov: Nobel Peace Prize Winner

February 22 at 7:30 pm 

https://tinyurl.com/DmitryMuratovTickets

d.       The Bobcat Culture of Mentoring Symposium with Keynote by Denise Juneau. March 28th from 1 pm to 4 pm. 

IV.            Information Items

a.       Faculty EAP and Work-life benefits – Jeannette Grey Gilbert, Chief Human Resources Officer

i.      EAP & Work-life services 

A.      choices.mus.edu

B.      Any employee has access to resources

C.       4 free counseling visits

D.      Vendor change-Uprise Health

ii.      MUS Wellness Program

A.      wellness.mus.edu 

B.      Wellchecks available to any employee

C.       Wellbaby

iii.      Supplemental retirement plans

iv.      Mental Health Support

A.      Mental Health First Aid course available

B.      Suicide Prevention training

C.       Reasonable ADA accommodation

1.       Confidential

D.      FMLA-Family Medical Leave

1.       Reach out to Janet Simon or HR, [email protected] 

v.      Comments/Questions:

A.      There has been a bottle neck in trying to get mental health help in Bozeman

B.      Wellchecks stopped doing flu shots?

1.       Believe they are doing flu shot

C.       Where do we go for counseling? Who takes our insurance?

1.       866-750-1327, 

2.       uprisehealth.com/members

i.      use access code: MUS

b.       26 paydays for faculty

i.      Banner 9 transition needs to happen first

A.      By end of calendar year

B.      Should be more user friendly

ii.      Will need to form a committee 

iii.      Will effect paid time off, etc. 

iv.      Will be overpayments and underpayments that will need to be worked out.

v.      Will effect summer pay.

vi.      Will probably be calendar year 2024.

vii.      Question

A.      Do any other MUS campuses use this?

1.       Not on the MSU side, but possible on UM side. 

c.       Dean and Department Head Evaluations- Dr. Robert Mokwa, Provost

i.      Three year cycle

A.      Year one: Deans

1.       Deans report to Provost

2.       Provost receives a summary of all of the evaluations

B.      Year two: Directors and Department Heads

1.       Report to Deans

2.       Similar process as Deans

C.       Year three: VPs, Provost, President

1.       VPs and Provost report to President

2.       President reports to the Commissioner of Higher Education

ii.      Questions

A.      What is the plan for timing?

1.       Will go out February 27th. 

2.       Open for two weeks

B.      May be more helpful to do it more frequently

1.       That could happen

C.       Confidentiality?

1.       Reports do not show who is making a comment on the survey. 

2.       HR won’t see that information either

D.      Do the Deans, etc. do a dossier like faculty do?

1.       They do assimilate information for this purpose. 

iii.      This does not replace the regular annual evaluations.

V.            Old Business

a.     Age of courses revision

i.      Tomas Gedeon moves to untable. Chris Posbergh seconds. Untabled. 

ii.      Feel that this may be detrimental to the retention of our students. 

iii.      Makes it harder for people to come back and continue on with another degree.

iv.      Fail to see how it is good for students. 

v.      Personal struggles and/or working full time while getting degree.

A.      Students shouldn’t have to ask for an extension to finish when they are working so hard. 

vi.      Maybe good for some departments and detrimental for others. How do you decide?

vii.      Is this actually an issue with students be here too long? Don’t think this is going to do what we think it’s going to do. Do not feel it would be effective. 

viii.      When would this go into effect? Would like to see more time given to those who went through the pandemic. 

ix.      Application for exception to the rule. If you can apply for exception, why have the rule? 

x.      Would current students be grandfathered in? Would they be expected to get out before they were prepared to?

xi.      This specific mechanism doesn’t seem like it’s going to work. 

xii.      Small group may be using the old system to keep getting work out of them, but that is the minority. 

xiii.      None in favor.  Two abstaining. Not approved. 

b.     Time-related policies revision

i.      5 in favor. 10 opposed. Four abstaining. Not approved. 

c.       Revised Mental Health Resolution

i.      The Faculty Senate of Montana State University (MSU) recognizes that maintaining and improving mental health and well-being are critical for faculty, staff, and students to achieve their goals and the mission of MSU. Given the proven associations between improved mental health and reduced suicide risk (Teismann et al. 2018), increased academic success (Eisenberg et al. 2009), and greater well-being (Keyes et al. 2012) 

A.      We encourage faculty colleagues to take the free online suicide prevention and mental health awareness programming, Kognito, to recognize signs of poor mental health and distress in themselves, their students, and others and to enhance their knowledge of local and campus resources. 

B.      We encourage faculty to participate in and share their knowledge of campus mental health resources with their colleagues and students to build on MSU’s culture of care. 

C.       We encourage faculty to acknowledge the importance of mental health by including campus mental health resources for students in their course materials. 

ii.      Tomas Gedeon moves to untable. Mat Walter seconds. Untabled          

iii.      Mat Walter moves to discuss. Chris Posbergh seconds. 

A.      Would like to discuss with faculty and bring back comments. 

B.      Sally Moyce statement: Nursing is in favor of this and feels it is important for the safety of all students, staff and faculty. 

C.       It is frustrating when you encourage someone to reach out for help and then when they do they can’t get any help. 

iv.      Doug Downs moves to approve. Tomas Gedeon seconds. Two opposed. No abstentions. Passed. 

VI.            Undergraduate Courses – New Courses – First Reading

a.    HVC 265 : Commercial Heating and Burners

b.    MCH 247 : CNC Robotic Integration 1

c.    PHSX 111 : The World of Quantum Physics

d.    STAT 497 : Educational Methods: Statistics

VII.            Undergraduate Courses – New Courses – Second Reading

a.       AHMS 295 : Allied Health Externship Prep Seminar

b.       ECIV 231 : Introduction to Engineering Hydrology

c.       HSTR 316 : Ancient India: Text and Ritual

d.       ARTZ 309

VIII.            Undergraduate Courses- Course Changes – Second Reading

a.       BIOB 260 : Cellular and Molecular Biology

i.      Credit change from 4 to 5

b.       NRSG 469 : Culturally Responsive Care in Nursing: The (Specific Culture) Experience

i.      Credit change from 2-6 to 1-6

c.       PHOT 113RA : The Magic of the Darkroom I

i.      Title change from Understanding Photography

d.       PHOT 213 : The Magic of the Darkroom II

i.      Title change from Intermediate Photography

e.       SPNS 323 : Advanced Spanish Grammar & Pronunciation

i.      Title change from Advanced Grammar

IX.            Undergraduate Course – Course Inactivations – Second Reading

a.       ECIV 331 : Engineering Hydrology

b.       PHOT 303 : Early History of Photography

X.            Undergraduate Programs – New Programs/Certificates – Second Reading

a.       05.0201-C : Africana Studies Certificate

b.       CNC-CTS : CNC Robotic Tending and Integration

i.      It was previously approved as a temporary program and now needs to go through a full workflow. 

XI.            Graduate Courses- Course Changes – First Reading

a.       AC 506 : Group Counseling addictions Settings

i.      Title change from Group Counseling in the Addiction Setting I

b.       AC 507 : Systems and Settings in addictions Counseling

i.      Changed from AC 507 : Group Counseling in the Addiction Setting II

c.       HMED 575 : Professional Paper and Project

i.      Credit change from 1-4 to 1-6

VI.            Updates

a.       Bookstore- Jennifer Thomson and Colter Ellis

i.            New textbook ordering system that had some hiccups

ii.            Will be a new faculty liaison 

A.      Will get contact info to you. 

iii.            Will continue to organize them by book author. 

iv.            What about the fact that they don’t order the amount of books that we order 

A.      They only order half what you want because it costs too much to send them back if they don’t all sell. 

v.            Rob Maher moves to have Chad appear before Faculty Senate. Steve Stowers seconds. 

vi.            They say that the Bookstore is supposed to be owned by faculty and students. Don’t even know who is on the board. 

A.      None opposed. No abstentions. Motion passes. 

b.       Sustainability Initiative

i.            Have added info to the D2L shell with this information 

ii.            Added Gallatin College and Extension spreadsheets 

iii.            Could we get the CSAC Chair come to and speak to us. Kristin Blackler will be here. 

A.      She isn’t Chair. Should be a faculty member. 

B.      Should be VP. Knutson. Would like to hear from him. 

 VII.            Senators’ Open Conversation

a.       Queer/straight Alliance received a death threat the other night. Many members are struggling with it. Impacting mental health. Several students had to miss class or didn’t feel safe in their home. Looking for other accommodations. Please look out for them. 

b.       Artificial Intelligence to do assignments. Form of plagiarism. Is there anything we can do? Is each faculty to police it themselves? 

i.            Talking about it. 

ii.            CFE is working on getting some information for a seminar.

iii.            On everyone’s radar. 

iv.            Fri morning English Dept. will be discussing this from 9:30-10:30am in JABS 407

VIII.            Public Comment

a.       Provost Mokwa

i.            Seems to be a link missing in shared governance. Faculty Senate’s input would have been helpful for Graduate Council’s conversation. 

ii.            Bookstore: Invite someone from the library to come to Bookstore meeting. 

iii.            AI: What can we do, what are we doing? Need to get on board in understanding it or you will be far behind. 

iv.            Thank you! Broke a record with enrollment and for Fall to Spring retention of students. 

IX.            Adjourn

a.     Tomas Gedeon moves to adjourn. Chris Posbergh seconds. Meeting adjourned at 4:49pm.